Intel Corp. (INTC) recently showed off a demo called "Thunderbolt Technology Update", which is basically a second-generation Thunderbolt solution. The next generation Thunderbolt is capable of piping "4K video file transfer and display simultaneously."

Marco Armanet, co-founder of Tumblr and founder of Instapaper, writes in his blog:

This could enable the first generation of desktop Retina displays: it wouldn’t surprise me if the first standalone Retina display was a 23” panel with exactly 4K resolution (3840?×?2160), run logically as 1920?×?1080 (1080p) at 2X, and driven by upgraded Thunderbolt ports in the next generation of MacBook Pros and Mac Pros.

If Apple's 4K monitors follow a similar release trajectory to its 2.5K monitors, it could see the tech trickle-down to a premium variant of its MacBook Pro laptops sometime around 2015. The current ~2.5K MacBook Pro Retina units are rough 220 ppi; a 4K unit would be around 350 ppi.

The prospect of a 350 ppi MacBook Pro would be impressive, but not out of the ballpark. Currently, the Galaxy S IV by Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) packs a 440 ppi, 1080p, 5-inch display. Scaling up super-dense displays is difficult, but Apple and Google have shown that it can be done.

The company also retails a $999 USD Thunderbolt Display for use with its laptops and desktops. That display packs a "2560-by-1440 LED-backlit display, a FaceTime HD camera, high-quality audio, three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a Thunderbolt port for daisy-chaining additional high-performance devices."

Apple has tricky marketing savvy. They will eventually stage 1 main 4K TV for living room and smaller sets (46", 37", 27") for other rooms, with smallest one being capable of serving as a multimedia monitor.

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